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2022 European Research Prize
Air de jeux: Protecting Children from Air Pollution by Designing Urban Environmental Installations

“Air de jeux” will form a partnership between the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), academics from Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), the NGO Les Chercheurs d’air, the BuildWind enterprise, and municipal representatives to propose urban environmental installations to mitigate outdoor air pollutant exposure for children.

Maider Llaguno-Munitxa
Chiara Cavalieri
Beatrice Lampariello
Damien Claeys
Gerald Ledent
Christine Fontaine
Geoffrey Van Moeseke
Université catholique de Louvain
Faculty of Architecture, Architectural Engineering, and Urban Planning

Somf 2022 european research prize llaguno munitxa proposal 03b

Photo showing a school street located in the Brussels Capital Region. © Les chercheurs d’air.

Jury
Ivan Blasi
Iker Gil (Cochair)
Mina Hasman
Aseem Inam
Kent Jackson (Cochair)
Olga Subirós

We are very excited to have been awarded the SOM Foundation European Research Prize to reflect upon the role architectural installations can play in urban air pollution mitigation and children’s well-being. Air pollution in cities is often taken as a given, and what architecture can do to improve local air quality is often overlooked. The SOM Foundation European Research Prize is one of the few grants allowing the exploration of design-oriented research projects within architectural teaching coursework. Thus we look forward to working on our project "Air de jeux” as part of our International Master’s in Architecture at UCLouvain.
Maider Llaguno-Munitxa

Worldwide air pollution is estimated to kill seven million people every year. Last year only in Belgium, almost 7,500 premature deaths were associated with high air contaminant concentrations. Consistently, the Brussels Capital Region (BCR) ranks among the top ten cities with the worst health impacts from exposure to air pollution in Europe. The environmental inequality across the BCR has also become a topic of public concern, with the highest air contaminant concentrations affecting the most vulnerable communities, especially children.

In response, in 2021 the government of the BCR launched (1) a large air quality monitoring campaign in partnership with local NGOs and high education institutions [1] and (2) urban planning and design initiatives such as School Streets [2] and Brussels Contrat École, [3] which aim to reduce local emission sources around schools and in other urban spaces frequented by children. Architectural strategies to reduce exposure to outdoor air pollution (i.e., in school courtyards, school streets, etc.) could provide a significant contribution.

In this context, the “Air de jeux” project will form a partnership between the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), academics from Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), local NGOs, the BuildWind enterprise, and municipal representatives to propose urban environmental installations to mitigate outdoor air pollutant exposure for children. This research work will be developed along a design course and intensive studio workshop that will be part of the International Master in Architecture at LOCI-UCLouvain, [4] and will be disseminated through an international conference that will take place in the 2024 spring semester, followed by the publication of a report.

The “Air de jeux” project will be composed of an interdisciplinary team of professors from UCLouvain: Maider Llaguno-Munitxa, Chiara Cavalieri, Beatrice Lampariello, Damien Claeys, Gerald Ledent, Christine Fontaine, and Geoffrey Van Moeseke. Collaborators specialized on urban ecology, microclimatology, and atmospheric physics include: Aurelie Bellemans (Professor, Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Nicola DaSchio (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), and Alessandro Gambale (CEO, BuildWind-BCR). In addition to the collaborators, the team will partner with the NGO Les chercheurs d’air, who have agreed to build on their existing School Streets project. Pierre Dornier (President, Les chercheurs d’air) will have an advisory role on the project. The proposed interdisciplinary team composed of architects, urbanists, historians, environmental scientists, and local NGO representatives will empower students to engage with combined research methods using geospatial analysis, environmental sensing, modeling, and visualization protocols within a design-oriented workflow.

Notes

[1] CurieuzenAir is known today as the most extensive air quality sensing network in Europe with more than 700 air quality sensing kits installed across the BCR territory. See CurieuzenAir, accessed February 2, 2023, https://curieuzenair.brussels/en/home.

[2] The School Streets project lead by the City of Brussels wants to discourage car traffic in the streets surrounding schools to improve the environmental conditions and provide public space to children. See “School Streets,” City of Brussels, accessed February 2, 2023, https://www.brussels.be/school-street.

[3] The Brussels Contrat École is a regional urban renewal program whose ambition is to improve the school environment in Brussels and to strengthen the relationship between the school and its neighborhood. See “Contrat École,” perspective.brussels, accessed February 2, 2023, https://perspective.brussels/fr/projets/contrat-ecole.

[4] The LOCI-LAB|UCLouvain International Master’s in Architecture is a master’s degree that was created in 2021. See “International Master’s in Architecture,” accessed February 2, 2023, https://loci-ima.com.

“Air de jeux.” Diagram of street installations to mitigate air pollution and improve the outdoor environmental quality for children. © UCLouvain.

Somf 2022 european research prize llaguno munitxa proposal

“Air de jeux” incorporates air quality into the academic curriculum in schools of architecture, expanding the academic field by creating networks with public institutions and nonprofit associations committed to public health to work together on the redesign of one of the most vulnerable urban spaces: school environments.

The winning proposal combines data collection, analysis, critical reflection, and prototyping of solutions with the ambition of creating not only a working methodology that can be extrapolated to other schools of architecture but also the production of innovative designs to counteract the invisible pandemic that plagues our cities: air pollution by nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter from fossil fuel emissions, which in turn is also one of the causes of climate change. “Air de jeux” is therefore a great initiative for the current training of young architects toward actions of direct social impact for the present and future.
Olga Subirós, Juror

This map shows the kindergarten, primary, and secondary school locations within the Brussels Capital Region and the NO2 concentrations recorded by the CurieuzenAir air quality network (for CurieuzenAir results see: https://curieuzenair.brussels/en/the-results/).

Somf 2022 european research prize llaguno munitxa proposal 01

The SOM Foundation is to be commended for focusing the 2022–2023 European Research Prize on “Shaping Our World Through Air,” and its attendant question, “How can air be considered while exploring new architectural environments, structural solutions, ecological strategies, and urban policies?” The winner of the prize, “Air de jeux,” led by the Université catholique de Louvain, is an interdisciplinary research project that also proposes design strategies in partnership with universities, enterprises, local government, and nongovernmental organizations. In addition, it investigates the vital intersection of air quality, urban settings, and children’s health. I certainly look forward to the outcomes of this project!
Aseem Inam, Juror

Photo showing a school street located in the Brussels Capital Region. © Les chercheurs d’air.

Somf 2022 european research prize llaguno munitxa proposal 02b

Collaborators

Aurelie Bellemans is an assistant professor at Vrije University Brussels and part of the FLOW research group. Bellemans obtained her master in Aerospace Engineering from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), and completed her PhD in plasma physics at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics and the ULB. She did a fellowship in plasma-assisted combustion at the University of Texas prior to returning to Belgium and joining Vrije Universitait Brussel.

Nicola Da Schio is a senior researcher and project manager working for the Brussels administration for the environment (80%) and Vrije Universitait Brussel (VUB) (20%). He holds a PhD from VUB on urban ecology and a master’s degree from Science Po on urban governance. He is interested in the uneven geographies and knowledges of urban socioecological good and bad, as well as in the nexus between science, state, and civil society.

Alessandro Gambale is the CEO of BuildWind, a Brussels Capital Region-based company specialized on CFD. Gambale worked as a research engineer for the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in Belgium where he was involved in applied research projects dealing with microfluidics and environmental fluid dynamics. He cofounded BuildWind in 2018. He holds a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from La Sapienza University.

Pierre Dornier is the founder and president of the Brussels-based NGO Les chercheurs d’air. Dornier has been working on air quality issues for the past six years, both in Belgium and in France. He also has a background in communications. He holds a professional degree in regional planning and communication, a master’s in history from the University of Strasbourg and a diploma in history and geography from the University of Toulouse.

Somf 2022 event maider llaguno headshot

Maider Llaguno-Munitxa
Université catholique de Louvain
Faculty of Architecture, Architectural Engineering, and Urban Planning

Somf 2022 european research prize chiara cavalieri headshot

Chiara Cavalieri
Université catholique de Louvain
Faculty of Architecture, Architectural Engineering, and Urban Planning

Somf 2022 european research prize beatrice lampariello headshot 2

Beatrice Lampariello
Université catholique de Louvain
Faculty of Architecture, Architectural Engineering, and Urban Planning

Somf 2022 european research prize damien claeys headshot

Damien Claeys
Université catholique de Louvain
Faculty of Architecture, Architectural Engineering, and Urban Planning

Somf 2022 european research prize gerald ledent headshot 2

Gérald Ledent
Université catholique de Louvain
Faculty of Architecture, Architectural Engineering, and Urban Planning

Somf 2022 european research prize christine fontaine headshot

Christine Fontaine
Université catholique de Louvain
Faculty of Architecture, Architectural Engineering, and Urban Planning

Somf 2022 european research prize geoffrey van moeseke headshot

Geoffrey Van Moeseke
Université catholique de Louvain
Faculty of Architecture, Architectural Engineering, and Urban Planning

Maider Llaguno-Munitxa

is an architect and assistant professor at Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), where she is the leader of the team Urban Science, Climate, and Health at the Group Architecture et Climat. Llaguno-Munitxa obtained her PhD from Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH Zurich) Institute of Technology in Architecture (ITA). Her research topic focused on the study of architectural and urban design strategies to modulate the urban environment, its microclimate, and its air quality. Prior to her PhD studies, Llaguno-Munitxa graduated with excellence in design in Advanced Architectural Design from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) at Columbia University. Llaguno-Munitxa obtained her diploma in architecture from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de San Sebastián with honors in 2006. Prior to joining UCLouvain, Llaguno-Munitxa was an associate research scholar and postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, and assistant professor at the School of Architecture at Northeastern University. Llaguno-Munitxa is the recipient of the Land der Ideen Beyond Bauhaus award and Columbia University GSAPP Incubator Prize, among others.

Chiara Cavalieri

is an architect, associate professor of urbanism and member of the scientific committee of Louvain4City at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), member of the steering committee of Metrolab Brussels, and leader of the Urbanism team in the Super-Positions research group. She obtained her PhD in Urbanism from the Università Iuav di Venezia. Cavalieri is currently developing water and landscape urbanism research throughout transboundary city-territories, with a particular focus on mapping and representing the related territorial dynamics.

Beatrice Lampariello

is a history of architecture professor at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain). Over the last few years, she has collaborated and taught in the field of architecture, history, and theory at a number of different international schools. Her studies focus on an architectural vision capable of producing a particular form of structure and construction—a new project of living.

Damien Claeys

is an architect, systematist, and doctor in building design and urban planning. He is a professor at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) where he teaches architectural design, theory, and drawing. He conducts historical, critical, and methodological research in architectural design, architectural theory, and systems theory. He leads historical, critical, and methodological research in architectural design and architectural and systems theory.

Gérald Ledent

is cofounder of KIS studio and is an architectural theory and design professor at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain). His PhD thesis was titled “Potentiels Relationnels” and explored the relations in dwelling between spaces and uses. Ledent plays a coordination role in the Uses&Spaces research team, where his research studies the relationship in architecture between uses and spaces, housing typo-morphologies, and research by design.

Christine Fontaine

is an architect and professor at LOCI-UCLouvain. Her practice with ZED architects covers public institutional buildings and social housing. She has a postgraduate degree in transdisciplinary studies and organizes international multidisciplinary workshops in Europe, Canada, China, and Chili. Fontaine is developing a teaching and research network on the cultural understanding of typo-morphologies.

Geoffrey Van Moeseke

is the leader of the team Indoor environmental and energy flows at the group Architecture et Climat at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain). He completed his PhD and master’s degree in architectural engineering at LOCI-UCLouvain. Among many other Brussels Capital Region (BCR) projects, he is currently leading the project Energy +, which focuses on school upgrading in the BCR. He has also led projects such as Airpath50 focusing on indoor air quality and comfort.

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